The Dreaded Play Date
by MusicNeverStops474
Summary: Becky's forced to have a play date at Tobey's house but litte does she know that she's in for an afternoon full of surprises.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: This is just a little story that popped into my head last night! hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer/ I own nothing.**

"Mom, do I have to go to Tobey's house? I mean, he's tried to destroy our house twice, he's always wrecking the city with his robots, and he's so annoying!"

Becky and her mom were in their blue van heading for the McCallister house for Tobey and Becky's play date. The two mothers were still determined to have them become friends even it was clear to Becky that they never would be. Becky didn't like Tobey and she was positive that he returned the feeling with equal dislike. So why were their moms so determined? Sometimes the saying "mother knows best" was highly overrated.

"Now honey, you should try to get along with Tobey, after all, have you ever seen him play with other kids?" Mrs. Botsford replied and when Becky shook her head she continued, "His mom says that he has absolutely no friends and that's part of the reason why he builds robots, to keep him company."

"Well, it's not my fault that he's so hard to get along with," retorted Becky, "And why should I be the one to make friends with him?"

"Oh look Becky, this is their street," chirped her mom, deliberately avoiding the question.

Sighing heavily, Becky turned to look out the window as they passed all the mansions along the street. She had never been to Tobey's house but she'd always thought of it as a mansion and it seems that she was correct.

"Honey, its number 498, keep a eye out please."

Becky scanned the house numbers until she spotted Tobey's, it was the corner house right on the end of the street. Pointing to it, she exclaimed, "There it is mom, right on the corner."

After they pulled up on the driveway, Becky got out of the car very slowly, deliberately trying to take a long time. Seeing the delay, Mrs. Botsford grabbed her arm and Becky walked reluctantly up the front steps. As they reached the door, they began hearing music from inside and Becky wondered why they would have a stereo playing that loud inside. It sounded not like someone practising an instrument but more like an entire orchestra!

After ringing the doorbell, they waited only a few moments before Mrs. McCallister swung open the door and greeted them with a wide smile. Ushering them in, she said, "I'm sorry that Tobey's not down yet, he's still in his bedroom practising."

"Practising what?" Becky asked, wondering if he could be responsible for the racket upstairs.

"His music, I told him to limit his time today to only an hour but he gets so caught up with his playing that he never remembers," she replied while hanging up Becky's mauve coat.

"Wait, he's making all the music from upstairs? By himself?" Becky asked, confused at how one person could create an entire orchestra of sounds.

"No, no dear. He simply plays one instrument and his robots do the rest. He's created an entire band of musician robots just to play along with him. Why don't you go up and see while I talk with your mother for a little while? His rooms the just upstairs and has a big sign that says "Tobey's room". You can't miss it."

"Alright," replied Becky as she began climbing up the circular staircase, one hand grasping the smooth, polished wooden banister. Above her hung a magnificent crystal chandelier, every crystal perfectly polished and gleaming from the sun, casting rainbows on the light blue walls. When she turned the corner into the hallway, she spotted Tobey's room at once and was surprised when she heard the song "Cruella de Vil" coming from inside. It sounded amazing and Becky wondered what instrument Tobey was playing in his little orchestra.

Guessing that he wouldn't hear her if she knocked, she decided to go ahead in. As she entered the room she was all of sudden surrounded by robots all playing instruments. But they weren't his usual 50-foot tall robots, they were only a little taller than she was and had delicate, human like fingers that moved gracefully with their instruments.

Through the midst of robots, she finally got a glimpse of Tobey with his back to her, at the piano. His hair was tussled, his glasses cast askew, and a simple pair of khakis and button up shirt, his vest and bow tie nowhere to be seen. His fingers moved efficiently up and down the keyboard, his head bobbing to the beat and she decided not to interrupt in the middle of his song. She sat herself in the corner of the room and watched with amazement the robot orchestra in the room.

As the song began to come to its grand finale, she watched with curiosity the concentrated look on Tobey's face and the unimaginable speed at which moved his hands. The volume raised in the room as the last notes blared out of the different instruments and when the song finished, Tobey fell back on his bed, looking exhausted but unbelievably happy. His facial expression changed though from happiness to shock as he heard Becky clapping from above his bed. His eyes blinked open, he gave yelp, and somehow he managed to end up on the floor.

Rubbing his head, he looked at her oddly, as if trying to figure out why in the world she would be in his room then realization dawned on his face. He nodded his head, "Right, right play date today. I totally forgot about that," he looked at her, "That it why you're right? You're not just randomly in my bedroom, because that would be weird."

Rolling her eyes, she replied, "Yes, I'm here for our play date."

The pair suddenly found themselves in the dreaded awkward silence which was finally broken with Tobey saying, "So…what do you want to do?"

"I don't know, what do you want to do?"

"I asked you first!"

"I asked you second!"

Tobey opened his mouth to reply, then closed it, not really knowing how to reply to that. Finally he said, "That doesn't even make sense! 'I asked you second'? I mean, honestly if you're going to retort someone, at least have it make sense!"

Mrs. McCallister called upstairs for them to come down, blocking Becky from replying, and both the kids scurried down the stairs, waiting to hear what Tobey's mom wanted.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Here's the next chapter, when I was out for my run this morning at 5:30am more ideas just popped into my head. Hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer/ I don't own anything.**

Tobey led the way downstairs and once they reached the last five or six steps, he leapt up and skipped them all. His feet hit the hardwood floor with a slap and when he turned around, Becky was still standing on the staircase, looking at him weirdly.

"What?"

"It's just I've never seen someone jump down half a staircase before. Weird habit of yours?" Becky asked, joining him at the bottom of the stairs.

"I guess you could call it that, I've done it for as long as I can remember. Anyways," he turned the corner to the kitchen where his mom was, "What's up mother?"

"I just got a call from my boss at work-"

"The Poutine guy?"

"Tobey," she scolded, "you know very well it's Mr. Patine not Poutine."

"Right, right, of course. Speaking of which, may we have French fries for lunch?"

"Well, I don't know. Maybe you can…oh, Tobey! You know how I hate it when you make me wander of topic!" Mrs. McCallister exclaimed, glaring at Tobey.

He grinned, turned to Becky, and winked before looking back at his frustrated mother.

"Anyway, my boss called me and told me about some last minute work I have to wrap up so I'll have to leave for a little while."

"How long?"

"Probably a few hours and Tobey you're in charge of lunch and, please, make something somewhat healthy and," she continued, gesturing to the kitchen, "clean up afterwards."

"Alright, alright….french fries!"

Becky poked him in the back then asked, "What's with you and french fries?"

"Dear, if you could figure that out, my life would be a lot less confusing," Mrs. McCallister replied, "And Becky? If Tobey tries to leave, you have my permission to hit him with something."

Tobey's jaw dropped open as Becky giggled behind him, "No fair! Why ever wouldn't you trust me mother dear?" He asked, plastering on a fake smile.

"Don't you give me that fake innocent smile of yours, young man."

"Okay, okay, I'll stay put."

"There's a good boy," she replied, tussling his hair and leaning down to give him a kiss on the cheek.

He ducked out of the way and retorted, "I'm not a dog mother!"

"I know, but if you were, you'd make a cute one!"

As he made fake gagging noises, Becky giggled and watched his mom roll her eyes then leave to get her things.

"So, Becky," Tobey said once his mom had left, "what would you like for lunch?"

As she hopped onto one of the jet black stools, she replied, "I don't know, I'm not picky so anything's good. What can you make?"

"Well, believe it or not, I'm actually quite the accomplished cook so I can make most things, "he scanned the cupboards and pantry and continued, "We can have subs, pasta, pizza, hot dogs, or even….french fries!"

"Okay, seriously, what is with you and French fries?"

"I don't really know, I just sometimes start obsessing over something to make my mom annoyed, it's not like there's anything else to do. So," he answered, "back to my question, what would you like for lunch?"

"Um, pizza sounds good and maybe you could throw in a salad."

"Alrighty, but wait," he turned back to her, "you aren't one of those health nuts who have those wacko salads with tomatoes and stuff, are you?"

Becky stuck out her tongue with distaste, "I absolutely loathe tomatoes! They're the most foul, rotten smelling, food on this earth!"

"Finally, someone who agrees with me! My mom thinks I'm some sort of mutant since I don't like tomatoes," answered Tobey, who had set the oven and pulled out a pizza.

It was a plain cheese pizza and Becky was about to comment before Tobey continued, "Now, I know it looks like a really boring pizza but, if we put our creative minds to the task," he gestured to the pizza, "this plain, boring pizza will become a masterpiece! How about it Becky? Want to make the best pizza ever?"

She leapt off the stool and yelled, "Yeah!"

"Alright, then we better get to work…"

Ten minutes later, the new and improved pizza sat in the oven now covered with bacon, pineapple, ham, and lots of extra cheese. The two kids had decided to head back upstairs after the Caesar salad was made and Becky was once again amazed by the robot orchestra.

"I can't believe you were able to make these, their hands and fingers move so gracefully, it's just amazing," she remarked softly, tracing a finger along the nearest robot's hand.

"Thanks," he replied, grinning from the compliment, "It took me forever to figure out the right design for the hand but once I did?" He made a dismissive gesture, "It was a piece of cake to build the rest."

As Tobey explained the other points of his robots, Becky wandered over to the grand piano and ran her fingers down the ivory keys. It really was a beautiful piano, all the keys were perfectly polished, the black outside gleaming; it looked like a piano you'd see Mozart playing on. Becky only played a little piano but knew one song extremely well, "A Spoonful of Sugar" from Mary Poppins had taken a long time for her to learn but she loved playing it. Now, she was working on "Chim Chim Cheree" which was even more difficult and she could never seem to get it right.

Tobey had noticed Becky's turn in attention and watched her as she gently traced the ivory keys with one, soft finger. As he gazed at her intently, he noticed just how pretty Becky really was with her dark tresses, her chocolate brown eyes, and her beautiful laugh. He shook his furiously, ending his staring and came to stand next to her then asked, "So, do you play?"

"Oh, only a little bit, nothing compared to you of course, but I do know a couple of songs," she replied, withdrawing her hand from the piano and starting to move away.

He caught her hand in his own and said quietly, "I'd love to hear you play."

She looked from their clasped hands to his blue eyes which were staring at her in a way she'd never seen before. Taking a deep breath, she smiled nervously and replied, "Alright," then, breaking the intense atmosphere, "but if I mess up you have to promise not to laugh."

He chuckled and answered, "Agreed."

As she placed her hands on the keys she could tell the Tobey was still watching her so she began shakily. Each note in the song came out perfectly, for which she was very grateful; nothing would be more embarrassing than messing up in front of Tobey. But when it came to the second song, Becky began having problems with that one section she never could do right. She let out a frustrated breath as she tried once again but all of a sudden she felt Tobey's hands on hers again, guiding her throughout the piece. Surprisingly, with him helping, she made it through the piece perfectly. When the song ended, he didn't let go as she'd expected but kept his position behind her, his warm breath tickling the back of her neck deliciously.

Neither one moved until they heard the loud beeper of the oven calling them to the kitchen. Tobey let go of her quickly and made his way downstairs leaving her there, wondering what had just happened.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note: Sorry that it's been so long for this chapter, I've been working on other things but it's up now! I hope you all like this ending and I'll start working on a new story soon. Unfortunately, i'll be gone for most of the summer so I won't be uploading much but I'll still be writing!**

**Disclaimer/ I own nothing (If I did, Becky would NOT be mooning over Scoops!)**

Over lunch, neither one spoke of the previous events but conversed on other topics such as school, Tobey's weird sense of fashion, and Becky's massive vocabulary. At several points during their conversation, Becky was afraid he might bring up the similarities between her and Word Girl, but luckily, that stayed unmentioned. After they had finished, Tobey began cleaning up and, to Becky's surprise, he brought all the dishes to the sink, passing the empty, stainless steel dishwasher.

As he filled up the sink, the bubbles beginning to thicken, she asked coming to stand next to him, "Let me ask you something." His head turned to her, with a knowing smile on his face. "Why do you hand wash all the dishes when there's an perfectly working and empty dishwasher right there? Another weird habit?"

"You know, every time I clean the kitchen someone asks me that. It's not really habit, more like a hobby. It gives me something to do when I'm home alone, which is a lot, and it just feels relaxing to me. I don't why, it just always has, hey, you want to help dry?"

"Sure, my dad likes wash dishes by hand as well so I usually help him out. You said you're home alone a lot. Why's that?" Becky asked, picking up the dishcloth and joining him at the sink.

"Well, my mum's gone a lot at work at the attorney office so I spend my time alone here. She quit hiring babysitters, finally, when I turned twelve so no more of that nonsense."

"Well, don't you go to someone's house sometimes? Like your Aunt or Uncle's?" Becky asked, drying a porcelain bowl.

He took a while before answering and stared at the bubbles floating about. Finally in a quieter voice, he said, "Well, I don't really have any other family except for Mum. She doesn't have any siblings and Dad…," the words got stuck in his throat for a moment, "Well, let's just say that I don't have any connection to my Dad."

His eyes had reverted to the sink and were unmoving as he washed the dishes almost mechanically. Becky had chosen to stay silent but she was horrified that she'd brought up such an obviously painful subject. They stayed like this for a while; occupying themselves with the dishes and neither one looking up at each other.

After a long while, Becky decided to break the silence and whispered softly, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up Tobey. It must be terrible not to see your Dad."

His face suddenly took on a stoned expression as he answered in a hard voice, "I've gotten used to rejection Becky, it's just a part of life. He doesn't think I'm good enough? Then that's his problem. One day he'll see, he'll see that I was worth something and then he'll feel sorry."

"He, he _rejected_ you? I thought your parents just got divorced or something," gasped Becky, wondering how any parent could simply leave their only child.

"My parents are divorced but that's because he left one night at 3pm, on my 4th birthday, without a warning of any kind. The next day, his lawyer contacted my mother and informed her of his decision to separate. They got divorced and Mum got a job at the district attorney office and worked early mornings and nights with other minimum wage jobs," explained Tobey who was still sporting his stony expression, "And do you know what the reason was that he left? I wasn't worth it. _We_ weren't worth it. I guess me and Mum just weren't good enough for my Dad, so he left."

Becky still couldn't quite grasp the thought of a father leaving his 4 year old child during the middle of the night with a reason such as that. By the time she opened her mouth to reply, she realized that they were done the dishes and Tobey was already speedily putting everything away in it's proper place. Deciding that he didn't want to continue their conversation, she ended it by saying in a soft voice, "I don't think you're worthless."

His hands which had been rising to place a bowl back in the cupboard stopped in mid air as his body froze. Cautiously, he turned to peek over his shoulder at Becky and was surprised to find her right behind him. Her hands placed themselves on his shoulders, turning him to look at her and then he felt two green clad arms encircling his neck.

His breath caught in his throat, she was _hugging_ him! Her cheek brushed against his just slightly and she rested her head on his shoulder, her breath tickling his neck. His arms circled her waist and they stood together for a minute before she let go. He murmured a small thanks and a moment later, Becky's face broke out into a grin. He looked up at her as she told him, "It's weird how I've been dreading this play date all week but this has been one the best afternoons ever."

He grinned as well and answered, "Well, it's not over yet Becky! Now that we've cleaned up the kitchen…let's bake cookies!"

"What kind of logic is that?"

"My kind of logic!"

Becky rolled her eyes but couldn't wipe her smile off her face at seeing him so excited. They decided to make chocolate chip cookies and they both worked super fast, eager to eat the finished product.

With the two pair of hands working efficiently and smoothly, the first batch were in the oven in no time. Unfortunately, they had worked so fast that they'd not put away a single ingredient or utensil since they'd started and now the kitchen was a disaster again. Sighing, Tobey began putting the eggs away when a clump of flour hit his back and when he turned around to see Becky, his face was greeted with another handful of whiteness.

Still coughing, he heard Becky laughing loud and decided she should taste some of her own medicine. He filled both his hands with flour and poured it on her head turning her dark hair a shocking white.

Both the kids were consumed with laughter as they went back and forth, covering each other from head to toe with flour. Tobey was just about to hit Becky's face once more when the shrill ring of the telephone interrupted them. Dropping the flour back in the bag, he rang to the phone and answered politely saying, "Hello, McCallister residence. Tobey speaking, oh, hello Mum. Oh, nothing, we're just baking some cookies. Uh huh, yes of course we'll clean up," he said glancing over the flour covered kitchen and Becky in the middle of it all, "You'll be back soon? In about 10 minutes? Yeah, we'll have everything clean by then. Bye Mum, love you," he hung up the telephone with a perfectly calm expression before turning to Becky and screaming, "She's going to be home in 10 minutes! I AM A DEAD MAN!"

Becky looked at Tobey who was on the floor, lying there like he was dead and covered in flour and rolled her eyes. Leaning down, she tapped his white nose and asked, "Well, what are you waiting for?"

His eyes blinked open, "What are you talking about?"

"Well, do you see another boy genius who builds robots who obey his every command?"

Slapping his forehead, he whipped out his remote and clicked a button, summoning his robots to attention. A dozen tiny robots marched into the winter wonderland kitchen then stood in front of the boy who told them, "Now robots, transform into a height of 6 feet and return this kitchen to order."

All at once, robots were everywhere, multiple hands were sweeping the floor while others worked on the counters. Tobey yanked Becky out of the way of the whirlwind robots just as one rounded the corner, the metallic arms sweeping up the remainder of their flour fight. The end result of this was Becky in Tobey's arms (this seemed to be happening a lot today) and her face lighting up with a blush. He looked about a second away from laughing out loud at her embarrassed face when she felt two cold, hard arms pick her up as if she were a feather. Her world turned into a blur as she was shook furiously, all the flour falling from her clothes, hair, and face. She was vaguely aware of Tobey, still on the ground with a smirk on his pale face.

But before she could yell something at him, she was suddenly released from the robotic grip and found herself falling….right into Tobey's arms….again. Grinning, Tobey looked down at her frazzled form and remarked teasingly, "You just can't stay away from me, can you?'

Her blush grew deeper when suddenly she noticed something and asked disbelievingly, "Well, why do you get be brushed off civilly while I got shaken like a tornado was in here?"

"Because, I'm the boy genius who builds robots who obey my every command," he replied, quoting Becky's earlier remark with a smile.

She stuck her tongue out at him, pushed out of his arms just as they heard the familiar rumble of a car pulling up on the driveway.

"ROBOTS!" All the robots turned to look at Tobey who yelled, "Back upstairs! On the double!"

The key turned in the lock and as the last robot scurried around the corner Mrs. McCallister walked in. Her eyes wept over the front hallway and living before she made her way over to the kitchen. There stood Becky and Tobey who looked as casual as ever, pulling some cookies out of the oven and Tobey said, "Hello Mum, did you have a nice afternoon?"

"It was alright, "she replied, still gazing over the kitchen, searching for some sign of a mess.

Noticing, Tobey remarked indignantly, "Hey, I did clean up like I told you I would Mum. There's no need to go all Sherlock Holmes on us."

"Okay, okay, don't get upset with me Tobey. Especially when you've got some delicious cookies waiting to be eaten."

The three sat around for a few minutes, discussing the afternoon and munching on cookies before the doorbell rang.

"I guess that's your mom," guessed Tobey who was grabbing a red paper plate and rapidly filling it with their cookies.

"Yeah, I suppose so. Are those for me?" Becky asked, pointing at the plate.

"For you and your family," he confirmed, handing her the plate, "I never thought I'd say this, but I really enjoyed today. Thanks for being do considerate about my whole dad issue; it's really is hard to find someone who understands."

"I had a great time too; you're going to have to invite me back one of these days to work on my music," she stated, winking at him.

She and her mother headed out the door and once it shut, he whispered, "I'm looking forward to it."


End file.
